SPORTS
1958

Baseball

World Series:(in 7 games) New York Yankees (4 games) over the Milwaukee Braves (3 games), in a reversal of last years game
the Yankees Hank Bauer led the pack with (4) homers, (6) runs and (8) runs batted in, he was the MVP

The Yankees had to battle back from a three games to one deficit the 1958 Series, the second team in history to accomplish that

The Dodgers and the Giants had both moved to California at the end of last season leaving the Yankees as the only N.Y. team

Stan Musial joins the elite 3000 hits club

All Star Game: American League beats the National League (4 - 3)

Football

NFL Championship:(sudden death overtime) Baltimore Colts over the New York Giants (23 - 17)

This was the first Championship game ever decided in Sudden Death

This was the first Championship game to be nationally televised, it was carried by NBC
it has been called "The Greatest Game Ever Played" and certainly led to televised footballs rise in popularity

MVP, for the second year in a row, went to Jim Brown, running back for Cleveland

Basketball

NBA Championship:(in 6 games) St. Louis Hawks (4 games) over the defending champs Boston Celtics (2 games)
the game was a reversal of last years match-up

Bob Pettit was the difference for St. Louis scoring (90) goals in the series with (50) of them coming in the final and deciding Game Six

Boston was forced to play without Bill Russell who sprained his ankle in the third game

Cliff Hagan of the Hawks was the overall playoff total points leader and Bill Russell (despite the injury) was the rebound leader

Horse Racing

Tim Tam was heavily favored to win the Triple Crown but fractured a sesamoid bone in the final stretch
at Belmont, he still managed to win second place, limping across the finish line

Auto Racing

Indianapolis 500: Jimmy Bryan his average speed was 133.791 he led the race for 139 of the 200 laps

The race was marred by tragedy, in the first lap there was a fifteen car pile up resulting in the death of driver Pat O'Connor
O'Connor's car flew fifty feet in the air landing upside down and instantly bursting into flames
he most probably died of the head injury and not the fire

Several rule changes were instituted because of the accident including drivers roll bars and required helmets

NASCAR Grand National Championship: Lee Petty was the points leader by a comfortable margin, he had (7) first place finishes

Richard Petty makes his first career NASCAR start in Toronto, he comes in nineteenth in the race

Fireball Roberts played it smart in 1958 entering only 10 races, winning six of them and becoming the top money earner for the year

Boxing

World Heavyweight Championship: Floyd Patterson only had to defend his Title once in 1958 by winning a twelfth round TKO against Roy Harris

World Light Heavyweight Championship: Archie Moore easily kept the crown by knocking out Yvon Durelle in the fifth round in a bout in Canada

World Middleweight Championship : Ray Robinson won his Title for the fifth time, this time against Carmen Basilio in a fifteen round split decision

World Welterweight Championship : Virgil Akins wins a series of elimination bouts to capture the Title vacated by Carmen Basilio in 1957

Yacht Racing

America's Cup: This was the first cup race since 1937 and the first time that 12 metre class yachts were used

The New York Yacht Club vessel Columbia won a decisive victory over the British entry, Sceptre (4 races to 0 races)